


Crush Depth

by FantasyImmortal



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: 707 | Luciel Choi's Real Name, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, merfolk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 18:56:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13060104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FantasyImmortal/pseuds/FantasyImmortal
Summary: I was on an exploration dive when a small, albeit smart, fish caught my attention. Little did I know that following the cute little thing would send me into a world I only thought existed in fairy tales.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A co-op fic written with only of my friends ^^

                _This is amazing! It’s so beautiful!_ It had been months since I was able to go scuba diving. Now here I was, exploring a coral reef that had only recently been discovered. This wasn’t like normal corals reefs that sat at one-hundred and fifty feet deep, this reef needed special equipment including a specifically designed diving suit to counteract the pressure of the depth. The suit itself was patent-pending and I was the first to test it.

                I held up the underwater camera and released the breath I had taken in from my scuba tanks. Once the bubbles had cleared I snapped a quick photo. I looked at the screen and saw a small little fish had photobombed the picture I had lined up. I looked up and saw the cute little thing on the other side of my full-faced mask.

                I held out a gloved finger and smiled as the small fish gently bit at the tip. Bubbles escaped from my regulator as I laughed. _You are rather adorable aren’t you?_ I held up the camera again to take a picture of the little one when it swam out of the shot. _Awww! Hey wait!_

                I followed after it and tried to take a picture again only to have it swim out of the shot again. _Well you’re being rather stubborn!_ _I thought you wanted your picture taken…_ I sighed and turned back towards the reef. _Oh well._ I took another photo of the reef and saw that the same fish has photobombed yet again.

                I looked up and saw it swimming away only to stop and turn to look at me. When I didn’t move it swam closer and nipped at my finger again. _What does it want?_ I followed after the small fish and stopped to see if it would turn around. When it did I figured it wanted me to follow it. _Well okay…_

                I had never seen a fish that acted like this and my curiosity was piqued. I followed the fish to an entrance of some cave. _That doesn’t look too safe._ I stayed at the mouth of the cave as the small fish entered without hesitation. My eyes widened, and I was extremely impressed with the small fish’s courage.

                I continued to stay at the mouth of the cave when it came back out and I could’ve sworn it glared at me before turning tail and disappearing into the darkness once again. Clipping the camera strap to the belt of my suit, I reached for the flashlight at my hip and turned it on before inching into the darkness. _If a fish that size can do it I can too right? And it’s a new place. Exploration for science!_ I made a fist with my free hand and shook it for more oomph towards my thoughts.

                I kept one hand on the stones of the cave as I ventured inward. _This is fine. This is okay. It’s all for science._ I shined the light from the flashlight ahead of me and saw something that looked like a hand reaching out from the other side of, what I assumed was a cave in.

                The small fish brushed against the hand in a loving manner than swam over to me and quickly back over to cave in. _Someone…or something is trapped. It’s like no creature I’ve seen before._  I followed the fish over and started to try to pull away some of smaller rocks. _This could be the discovery of the century!_

                I put my feet against the wall of the cave and braced body against one of the larger boulders and pushed with all my might. The boulder shifted slightly before it suddenly gave way and I quickly pulled back and hugged the wall to keep from getting hit by the rubble that followed it. Once the commotion stopped I shined my flashlight towards the direction of the cave in.

                There was now an open space and I saw a man’s likeness trying to squeeze out of the opening. His skin looked like it had some patches of scales and he looked like he had fins for ears. I gasped and dropped the flashlight, immediately reaching for the camera. I held it up only to have him take it and smash it against the stone wall beside my head. The flashlight had landed against the fallen stones and it continued to shed light on his handsome features.

                He stared down his nose at me, his white hair fluttering slightly with the water’s current. He looked angry as he raised his hand and I tightly closed my eyes. When nothing happened I gradually opened both eyes and crossed them as I focused on the small fish from before floating in front of me and facing him. He opened his mouth and looked as though he was talking to it.

                The fish swam around him and he turned his back and pointed at like they were arguing. I looked at his hair again and noticed that not only was it white but it had pink tips as well. _What an unusual color._ I looked down his the muscles of his back and my eyes widened when his skin turned to scales.

                Bubbles obscured my vision as let out the breath I didn’t know I had been holding when I saw a tail. Without thinking I reached out and held the tail in my hands. His back straightened and he looked over his shoulder at me before turning and slapping my hands away.

                I paid no mind to the small pain in my hands and reached up to grab one of his, intrigued by the webbing between his fingers. He jammed his other hand against my mask and I let him go and as I backed away in pain. _It…it can’t be! I_ must _be dreaming!! There’s no way there’s a merman in front of me!_

                I pressed my back against the wall as he leaned in closely. He turned his head slightly and his eyebrow rose quizzically as he looked me up and down. He opened his mouth but closed it again as the cave began to tremble. I looked around frantically and felt myself being pulled further into the cave. _What’s going on?_ My worry increased as flashlight disappeared along with the rubble left from the cave in.

                I tried to grab at any section of the wall that I could as the current began pulling me further into the darkness of the cave. I pulled my hand away from the wall as a sharp, pointed stone sliced through my palm. I tried to call out but only bubbles came from my regulator.

                I tried to swim against the current reaching out in front of me, kicking my flippers with all my might but it wasn’t enough and the darkness was swallowing me whole. I felt something grab my wrist before a stone smacked my head and I lost consciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

                “Do you think she died?”

                “How the hell should I know?”

                I could hear voices. They sounded human but at the same time something about them sounded otherworldly. I slowly opened my eyes but it didn’t make much difference, I was still engulfed in darkness. _Am I dead?_ My head pounded and my body felt heavy as I tried to sit up.

                “What should we d—“

                “Shut it! She’s moving!”

                I groaned as I sat up. “Wh-Where am I?” A breath hissed between my teeth as I pressed my hand on the hard stone beneath me. I squinted against the darkness as I brought my hand close to my face, trying to inspect the injury.

                “Let’s talk to her.”

                “Are you out of your damned mind?!”

                I looked in the direction of the garbled voices. “Hello? Is someone there?” My brow furrowed as I heard more from the voices and then some loud splashes. Small splashes of water sounded like they were coming towards me and I backed away instinctively. I blinked rapidly as a light suddenly shined nearby. I held up my hand to shield my eyes from the light, even with it being faint, as my eyes adjusted.

                “Hiya!”

                I screamed as I scrambled away from the face that came into my view. His eyes were a golden-amber and his hair was as red as fire. He held up a hand in greeting and I immediately saw the webbing between his fingers. “You’re like the guy from earlier!”

                “Huh?” He blinked with a blank expression before looking back towards water behind him.

                I leaned to the side slightly to look behind him as well. I saw the vaguely familiar white and pink hair. The merman had ducked into the water so that only the top of his head and his eyes broke the surface. He was glaring at me as he let out a round of bubbles in annoyance.

                I looked at the face in front of me before I saw his yellowish fishtail swaying back and forth behind him, much like an excited puppy. “Mer-Mermen?! You exist?!” My voice echoed around me and I pressed the palm of the uninjured hand to my forehead as pain raced through my temples. “It’s not possible I-I just hit my head, this is just a dream…”

                I looked towards the light source and saw a ball of water with small creatures using a type of bioluminescence. I leaned closer trying to get a better look. “Woah, this is cool!” I lifted a hand to touch it when I glanced over at the red-head and saw he was watching me intently with a smile on his face.

                “It’s interesting.” He said as he looked me up and down.

                “What is?” I asked as I followed his gaze and looked down and saw that my suit had been stripped from me and I sat in my bikini. Feeling heat rise to my face I hugged my knees to my chest in embarrassment. “Where is my suit?!”

                “It’s interesting that my little brother would save a fingerling.” He tilted his head quizzically. “Suit? Oh! You mean your second skin? It’s over there! Same with your portable lung things.” He said happily as he pointed to a spot a few feet away from me. He pulled himself up out of the water and used his hands to crawl over to my things. “This ish illy eat.” He said as he put in the mouthpiece.

                “Don’t do that!!” I looked at the diving tanks and saw a rather large gash along the side of one of them and sighed. “I guess it doesn’t matter now anyways.”

                The second merman continued to play with my things. He kept the mouth piece between his lips as he picked up the suit and put an arm through one of the legs of the diving suit. Tearing my gaze around him, I surveyed my surrounds as much as I could with what little light was available. _It looks like a grotto of some kind._  Stalactites and stalagmites dotted the ground and ceiling making it an eerie yet beautiful place.

                “Can we go now?”

                Both myself, and the red-head, turned to look towards the water. The white-haired merman had dipped his mouth back below the surface and continued to blow bubbles in annoyance. In the dim light I could vaguely make out him swishing his tail back and forth as his arms were crossed over his chest.

                The red-head removed the mouth piece and pouted. “We can’t just leave her, Saeran.”

                “Sure we can, _Saeyoung_.” Saeran, the white-haired merman said. I could hear the venom dripping from his voice as he said the red-head’s name in return. “And you stay out of it!” He snapped as he looked at something beneath the surface.

                “But she can’t leave here without her other body parts.” Saeyoung said as he struggled to pull his arm out of the diving suit. “And one of them looks really broken.”

                “They aren’t body parts…” I mumbled.

                “They aren’t?” He held up the diving suit and looked between it and me. “But it fit like a second skin.”

                “It’s supposed to. It’s just a diving suit to protect my body from the chill of the ocean. But that suit was specially made to help withstand the pressure of being so deep in the oce….ummm how deep am I actually?”

                “How deep?” Saeyoung looked up at the ceiling of the grotto in thought.

                “Deep enough to probably fix the problem.” Saeran grumbled as he glared at me again.

                “I’m sorry, are calling me a problem?” I asked him, giving him a glare of my own.

                “Yes I am, because that’s what you are!”

                “Well this _problem_ didn’t have to save your scaly ass, you know!”

                “Then that makes you a problem _and_ an idiot on top of it.”

                I puffed out my cheeks in anger at his ungrateful attitude. _How dare he?! He would probably still be trapped if not for me and that little fish!_ “Oh!” I remembered the small fish and then the current that sucked us all into the darkness. “That small fish! Is it okay?”

                “Athena is fine.” Saeyoung chimed in. “She’s probably happy to know that you’re worried about her little self.”

                “Her name is Athena? Like the Greek goddess?” I recalled how the small fish swam into the cave without hesitation. “That explains her courage.” As if on cue she poked her tiny head out of the water proudly. I smiled at her and waved without thinking.

                Saeran’s lips pressed together in a thin line before he lightly pinched his fingers around Athena’s tail and pulled her back under the water. “Don’t act like you’re friends.”

                “Oh Saeran she could be like a pet!” Saeyoung shouted. I shook my head and looked at Saeyoung wide eyed as he pulled himself back towards the water. “We can feed her and everything.”

                “I’m sorry, a pet?!”

                “No.” Saeran said and dove beneath the surface without another word.

                “Oh c’mon it’ll be fun.” Saeyoung said before following after him.           

                I scrambled to the water’s edge. “What do you mean a pet?!?!” I called out but my only reply was my voice echoing back at me. I watched the water waiting for one of them to break the surface but sighed in despair when I realized it probably wasn’t going to happen any time soon. I sat back and looked at the ball of water that housed the bioluminescent creatures. “What’s going to happen to me now?” 


	3. Chapter 3

                “Saeran. Heeey, Saeran. Saeran!”

                “What?!” Saeran shouted as he gave his brother a side-long glare.

                “Yeesh. What has you caught in a fingerling’s net?” Saeyoung smiled as he happily swam ahead of Saeran. “We have a new pet! You should be happy. Oh, oh, oh! What should we call her?”

                Saeran reached out and grabbed his brother’s tail, forcing him to stop. “We _don’t_ have a new pet. We _aren’t_ going to name her. We are going to just leave her there!”

                Saeyoung’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped. “But if we do that she’ll die…”

                “Then the problem solves itself.” Saeran pulled at Saeyoung’s tail and threw his brother behind him before continuing to swim forward.

                “Huh. You know it makes it even more interesting.” Saeyoung mused, his arms crossed over his chest as he swam upside down. Saeran rolled his eyes as Saeyoung caught up with him. “What’s interesting is why you saved her in the first place.” Saeyoung shrugged as he continued to swim upside down while looking at his brother.

                “I…“ Saeran let out a frustrated sigh. “Just reflex I guess.” Saeran came to a stop as Athena swam in front of his face. “What?” He asked as she seemed to frown at him before swimming into the shell he wore around his neck. “Oh c’mon don’t be like that!” He said as he grabbed the shell and held it up. Small bubbles escaped the shell and he sighed again as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ll bring her something eat or whatever okay? Is that better?” Athena poked her head out and gently touched her nose to Saeran’s thumb and wiggled happily.

                “She has you wrapped around her little fins.” Saeyoung laughed as he straightened himself and swam ahead.

                “Shut up.” Saeran mumbled at him as he gently pet Athena on her head. Gently releasing the shell Saeran began to swim forward only to have Athena swim up to his face again. “You want me to get her something now?!” He bit the inside of his cheek as Athena nodded. “…Fine. You really have a way of making me do things I _really_ don’t want to do.” He cocked his eyebrow and smirked as she fluttered her fins excitedly.  

                He dove a little deeper, swimming along the sea bed before coming to a bustling reef. “It’s getting darker and you want me to find something for a fingerling to eat. What do they eat anyways?” He asked himself reaching for some seaweed. “Just this should work.” He said as he looked at the seaweed in his hands.

                Saeran lifted his tail, catching Athena nibbling at it. “Really?” Saeran said with a monotone voice. She immediately let go when she realized she had been caught and she spun around like nothing happened. “I don’t know what they eat.” He looked back down at the reef and caught some free-swimming clams and wrapped them in the seaweed he had plucked. “There?” He held up the seaweed-wrapped clams, showing Athena.

                Athena swam around his head, stopping in front of him and looking at him with wide eyes that sparkled happily. He looked back and forth before looking at her and pursing his lips and moving them in a kissing motion. The scales underneath her eyes reddened slightly and she pressed her nose to his while she wiggled her tail excitedly.

                He held up his free hand which she promptly nuzzled against. “You’re too precious for words.”

 

                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

                I crawled over to my diving gear and examined the tanks. I sighed as I ran my finger carefully over the jagged slash that ran horizontally along one of the tanks. I checked the gauge of the still intact tank and sighed again. “There’s nowhere near enough to get the surface safely. What am I going to do?”

                I put the tanks down and examined my diving suit. _This seems to be fine._ “It’s fine… It’ll be fine. _I’ll_ be fine…” I hugged the suit to my chest as I looked around the dimly-lit grotto again, trying to keep myself from panicking. _If they don’t come back I’m going to die down here…_ I hugged the suit tighter against me as a shiver ran down my spine and tears began to prick my eyes.

                I looked back towards the grotto’s entrance when I heard a small splash. I inched towards the noise and saw a small fish jump into the air and splash back into the water. “Athena?” I asked and smiled as her head broke the surface. “You are a pretty special fish aren’t you?”

                “She doesn’t need to hear that from you.”

                I heard a garbled voice and looked further into the water. There I saw the same white hair of the merman from before. I snapped my fingers as he slowly swam towards Athena. “Oh! You’re Saeran, right?” I said, hoping I called him by the right name.

                “Don’t talk to me.”

                I closed my mouth and bit my lips together as he passed Athena and continued to approach me. He kept his eyes on me, watching me carefully as he placed something on the stones beside me. I turned my head slightly and looked at what he had placed. “Seaweed?” I reached for the seaweed and unwrapped whatever was entangled in it. “And clams?”

                “Just eat.” Saeran huffed as he turned around to leave.

                “Uh wait! I can’t eat these.” I saw his shoulders stiffen and glanced at Athena who still looked rather happy. “I-I’m sorry! I appreciate the thought. It’s just…To avoid a chance of getting sick I need these cooked and I don’t have any fresh water so I can get dehydrated from eating just the seaweed.”

                “You’re a real pain in the tailfin!” He growled as a wave of water splashed towards me while he turned and quickly swam up to me. He dunked his hand and gathered a ball of water like his red-headed friend had done. With his other hand he reached into the ball and pinched his fingers together. He slowly pulled his fingers out of the water ball and in that same hand, held something small and white that looked like the size of a ping-pong ball. “Here!”

                I reached my hands outward only to have the ball of water splash against my face. I quickly reached to wipe my face. Licking my lips, I realized the water had no salty taste. _He pulled the salt out?!_ I looked over at him and saw him smile down at Athena as he held the little white ball in front of her and she nipped at it joyfully.

                “She seems to really like that.” I said softly as I watched. My back straightened and I bit my lower lip as I twisted a leaf of seaweed around my finger when he shot me a glare.

                “I said don’t talk to me.”

                “I-I’m sorry I was just making small talk.”

                “Shut up!” His shout echoed around me and I flinched.

                 I sat in silence for a few minutes waiting for him to leave. When he didn’t I felt the urge to give him a piece of my mind. “Why are you being so mean? You know, I didn’t have to try to save you before. And…And you bring me something to eat only to talk to me so rudely! What is your problem?”

                He suddenly pulled himself up out of the water and brought his face close to mine. “My problem? My problem?! _You_ are the problem!” He screamed. 

                I couldn’t look away from his face. Even in the dim light he looked rather handsome and my heart skipped a beat. “Get away from me!” I shoved my hand into his face and tried to push him away.

                He grabbed my wrist, his skin felt cold and slippery. “Why the hell are you touching me?!”

                “Let me go!” I tried to pull my hand away.

                “Certainly.” He sneered as he released my hand and I fell back. He lowered himself back into the water as he laughed.

                I furrowed my brows and grabbed the seaweed he had brought me and threw it at him. I slapped my hands over my mouth as the seaweed stuck to his face. He looked so angry that the water around him should’ve started boiling. Closing his eyes slowly he reached up and removed the seaweed from his face and put his hands down on the rocks.

                “You’re going to regret that!” He yelled as he pulled himself back up out of the water. He reached towards me with one hand while supporting himself with his other hand. Unfortunately the seaweed underneath his supporting hand caused him to slip and he fell against me, his face landing against my chest.

                “Oh goodness. Saeran, are we interrupting something?”


End file.
